No Titanfall on PlayStation 4 Due To Unknown Specs, Xbox ‘Saved the Project’

New details have surfaced that shine more light on Respawn Entertainment’s decision to skip out on developing their debut shooter, Titanfall, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and even PlayStation Vita.

Geoff Keighley’s behind-the-scenes look at Titanfall’s production in The Final Hours of Titanfall leads to the conclusion that the decision really came down to timing. Sony wasn’t quite ready to divulge any details on the PlayStation 4, but it was willing to offer what the studio needed to produce a handheld version of the shooter on the PlayStation Vita.

“I can’t emphasize enough,” programmer John Shiring said over dinner with a Sony representative. “Decisions are being made here about our game, and we really need to know about the next PlayStation.”

In the end, things didn’t quite work out with Sony. However, Microsoft was able to share specs of what was then called “Project Durango”, which lead to a “top secret briefing from Microsoft in late January….”

“The deal was a complicated one as Respawn wasn’t dealing directly with Xbox,” Keighley wrote. “Instead, terms were negotiated through EA, which signed a larger, overarching partnership deal with Microsoft for the Xbox One. In order to make the economics work and keep Titanfall alive, EA needed a first-party publisher to invest. Xbox was willing to step up and save the project, which turned out to be a wise bet. Xbox now has one of the biggest games of the year as an exclusive to its platforms, although it lays no claim to sequels.”